The names have been changed to protect the not-so-innocent.
I manage, or rather managed, a Field Support team that is spread across four western states. We were employees of a sunbelt corporation until two weeks ago when we were all flown into our corporate headquarters on the pretext of two days of technical meetings.
The first morning, the CIO walked in, said that he had made the decision to outsource us, and as of the first of the month we would be working for Company X, a company thatmany of us had never heard of.
He then went on to tell us that:
We all had jobs at our same pay level and that the new company would honor our seniority. He neglected to tell us that the new company was only obligated to keep us for 60-90 days.
He told of the wonderful training we would get from the new company. He neglected to tell us that our mileage reimbursement would be less than 25 cents a mile and that the difference goes to pay for our training.
He told us they had great benefits. He neglected to tell us that it costs twice as much for employee only coverage.
He told us that everything else would remain the same. He neglected to tell us that a good portion of our current duties are not covered by the new scope of work.
He told us that this would produce better service levels. He neglected to mention that we had exceeded our service level agreements every month for the past two years.
He said that it would make for happier end users. He neglected to mentionthat the focus groups he had commissioned earlier in the year gave Field Support the highest marks in customer service.
(See part II)